This year’s Fantasia Bunko Daikanshasai (Fantasia Bunko Big Thanksgiving) event, set to take place on October 22nd, teases that an “important announcement” will be made during the Full Metal Panic! Special Stage session scheduled. This panel for the event’s main stage lists Tomokazu Seki (voice of Sosuke Sagara), Satsuki Yukino (Kaname Chidori), Yukana (Teletha “Tessa” Testarossa), producer Atsushi Ito, and original novel author Shoji Gatoh as guests, and the event’s website notes that the Special Stage session is a “must-see for Full Metal Panic! fans.”

To get a sense of the level of the announcement being teased, last year’s Fantasia Bunko Daikanshasai 2015 revealed that plans were underway for a new anime adaptation of the Full Metal Panic! light novels. The original novel series debuted in 1998, the 12th and final volume of the main series published by Fujimi Shobo in 2010. The novels have previously inspired the 24-episode Full Metal Panic! TV anime in 2002, the 12-episode Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu anime in 2003, and the 13-episode Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid anime in 2005. There was also a Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid OVA released in 2006. While Gonzo animated the first anime series, Kyoto Animation produced the two sequel series and OVA.

The first Full Metal Panic! anime series, Fumoffu,and The Second Raid are all streaming for the UK now on Animax. FUNimation have released all anime adaptations of Full Metal Panic! on DVD and Blu-ray for the US. They describe the story of an alternate Earth, where the Cold War didn’t end in 1991, as follows:

Kaname Chidori’s one of the most popular girls at her high school – unfortunately, it’s her growing popularity off campus she should be worrying about. Unbeknownst to Kaname, terrorists are plotting her abduction, believing she possesses the rare and coveted abilities of “the Whispered.”

That’s where Sousuke Sagara enters the picture. He’s a hotshot soldier from the clandestine counter-terrorist organization known as Mithril – and he’s going undercover at Kaname’s school to try and keep her safe. He may be an ace in the cockpit of an Arm Slave mech, but there’s no training in the world that could prepare him for the warzone of high school.

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Littleanimeblog is the brain child of Brits Dominic Cuthbert and Elisabeth O’Neill. Putting their collective heads together results in regular news, the latest releases reviewed, light hearted lists and critical insights exploring the world of anime from a variety of topics including technology, mental health and sexuality.